The Last Week...

The last week…… what? How are we already here? I can’t believe how fast time has flown by. I don’t want to go back to College Station where it’s hot and humid and… well… not Europe. I have a feeling it will be hard to adjust back to my old life. I was nervous before coming here, and now I can’t imagine returning back to Texas. But I do miss air conditioning and my car (and family, obviously)… so I guess that’s the silver lining of having to go back.

Our last day in Bonn started with our last lecture in Neurophysiology of Music. For this lecture, Professor Waltz integrated everything we had learned to demonstrate how the emotional components of different tones have been conserved across cultures, indicating that there may be some innate component to this. This last lecture was a great end to an interesting class that I very much enjoyed. We later had lectures by Dr. Wasser on the Doctor’s Trials and the history of anesthesiology. The lecture on the Doctor’s Trials was incredibly interesting. Dr. Wasser explained how these trials took place and what the results of the trails were. He also talked about how the Nuremburg Code was a result of these trails and how before this took place, there was no written code on human experimentation. We then had a very quick lecture on the history of anesthesia, and then we went to visit the anesthesia museum in Bonn that was founded by a famous German anesthesiologist who was unfortunately unavailable to give us a tour that day. I found this museum to be fascinating, and it was so amazing to see the evolution of anesthesia techniques and machines. Once we were finished at the museum, I headed back to my host home for the last night. My host mom cooked me dinner and talked to me for a while before I had to go pack. Packing was an interesting task because I am definitely leaving with more than I came with (you know… souvenirs and stuff). I woke up at 5:30 to get ready and finish packing, and I am slightly afraid my zipper will bust on the way home. My host mom had a chocolate sweet roll for me for breakfast because these were my favorite, and then she kindly drove me to the Hauptbaunhof. Our group got on our last train to Cologne, which ended up being late and subsequently caused us to miss our connection. So we had to take the next train to Berlin without seat reservations. The train ride was like a game of musical chairs, but ultimately ended up being fine. We got off in the eastern part of Berlin and had to lug our heavy luggage up and down stairs…. But at least we wont really have to do that much longer. Once we were checked into the hotel, we met up with guides for a bike tour around Berlin. While on the bike tour, we stopped at many historical places, including: part of the Berlin Wall, Hitler’s bunker, the Parliament building, the spot across from the university where the famous Nazi book burnings took place, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and the Brandenburg Gate. We had time to walk through the memorial because the architect designed it to have an emotional affect on the onlookers. It consisted of concrete rectangles that increased in height, starting from flat pieces on the outside to very tall pieces in the middle. The ground in the memorial was uneven and had little hills. The designer’s goal was that a person walking towards the middle would experience an increasing uneasiness due to the tall concrete structures and the maze-like quality. I definitely felt uneasy walking through it, but that also had to do just with what the memorial was for. Our bike tour lasted a few hours, but the time flew by and getting to tour Berlin was incredible. We also somehow (rather miraculously) made it through the tour without any major crashed or mishaps. After the tour was over, seven of us (Juliette, Katheryn, Hailey, Emily, Gabe, Carter, and myself) went to eat at a neat Italian food restaurant where you put purchases on a card they gave you and you just paid at the end. After dinner and stopping for the best coconut gelato I’ve had so far on this trip, we headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

The next morning, we went to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and had a guided tour through it. The tour guide was great, and it was interesting to learn about this camp. This is the second camp I have been to while on this trip, and each time has been difficult. It is hard to imagine the pain and suffering that so many people went through every day on the same grounds we walked on. So many people who were murdered based on their race and beliefs there… and to walk across the camp is a somber and difficult experience. Before I came on this trip, I thought that I didn’t want to see a concentration camp and was unaware that Sachsenhausen was part of the course. However, a group of us went to Munich the first weekend and saw Dachau. Now that I’ve been to two camps, I am actually glad that I went because I was able to learn so much about the Nazis, prisoners, and camps. It truly is an unparalleled experience, but I am not sure that I would ever be able to return to the same ones. After the camp, we had a group lunch at a potato restaurant that was very good. After eating, we returned to the hotel and worked on our papers. This was also the night where we bleached Carter’s hair. Carter had been wanting us to bleach his hair and turn his hair blonde, and he actually went through with it. It took three rounds of treatment to get his hair looking blonde and not have any orange in it.

The next morning, we went to a museum to see an Alchemy exhibit. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, but the exhibit was an interesting mixture of old and modern pieces. After learning about the nature of alchemy and seeing some interesting pieces, we left for a lunch break. By the time we left the museum, it had begun to rain. It actually ended up raining all day. Juliette, Gabe, and I went to eat at an Australian restaurant before grabbing some gelato and meeting back up with the group. From there, we went to the Otto Bock science center, which is a company that makes prosthetic limbs. We had a tour through this facility and learned about prosthetic limbs and how they work. We were able to see some modern prosthetic legs and use some interactive devices. I was amazed to learn about the procedure done on a full-arm amputee where the surgeon removed nerves from a pectoral muscle, divided the muscle into 4 parts, and innervated each part with a nerve that was supposed to go to the arm. Once the nerves grew back into these new pectoral segments, the patient was able to control different movements of his prosthetic arm. Once our tour was finished, a group of us decided to brave the rain and go to Museum Island while the rest of the group went back to the hotel to get ready for a Blink-182 concert. Our group of seven, which included Professor Waltz, ran through the rain to get to the Pergamum Museum. Getting soaking wet was worth it, though, because we got to see the Ishtar Gate and the bust of Nefertiti. The Gate was absolutely incredible! I was amazed at its sheer size but also at how vibrant and detailed it was. Babylon must have truly been one of the most wondrous cities of the ancient world. The bust of Nefertiti was also outstanding, and I couldn’t believe how well its color has been preserved and how beautiful the bust was. If the bust is an accurate representation of Nefertiti, its no wonder she was called the most beautiful queen of Egypt. After seeing these incredible pieces, we went back to the hotel and stopped for dinner at an Indian restaurant that was very good. I went back to the hotel after and went to bed.

The next morning, we had a lecture from Dr. Wasser on Rudolf Virchow and also finished the lecture on the Doctor’s Trials. After a lunch break, we left to go to the Charité, which is a medical school complex in Berlin. We first went to a museum building they had which contains many human specimens. The tour we had through this museum was outstanding, and I loved learning about different specimens and seeing the different pathologies. After the museum, we had another tour of some of the resources provided for medical students. We saw rooms that were set up as different clinical environments equip with simulators for the students to practice with. I even got to help try to “save a life” in the ER room. I was responsible for ventilating the dummy while poor Hailey had to do chest compressions for 5 minutes. After our time was over at the Charité, we quickly went back to the hotel to change for our farewell dinner. Our dinner was at a Moroccan restaurant called Kasbah, and it was some of the best food I had all trip. I love trying new foods, and this was my first time ever eating authentic Moroccan food. After dinner, we decided to go back to the hotel and watch a movie. I had to turn in for the night a little earlier than everyone else because I wanted to get a few hours of sleep before waking up at 4:15 to get ready to leave. I wasn’t ready to leave… I didn't want to leave the amazing country I came to love and the wonderful friends I made, but I was comforted by the fact that they would also be going back to College Station. 

Tschuss, 

Alana